Australian Fashion Foundation Announces 2022 Scholarship Recipients – WWD

SYDNEY – Michelle Li and Mikayla Hogg Named Fashion Fund Australia Annual Scholarship Winners prize for the year 2022.

In partnership with the American Association of Australians, Li and Hogg were each awarded a cash prize of $20,000 and, pending global travel restrictions, a six-month internship with a fashion label unidentified is based in the United States.

Li, a 2021 RMIT fashion graduate student, impressed the judges with the “Felt, Dress” graduation collection of sculptural woolen dresses and accessories inspired by style Dada movement and Purism.

Hogg, creative director, photographer and stylist and 2021 graduate from Melbourne’s Whitehouse Institute of Design, caught the attention of the judges with his graduation project “No clothes on” her portfolio, a photographic portfolio of original artwork, fashion photographs and illustrations, as well as arrangements of handmade ceramic vases.

The jury, convened remotely via Zoom, included fashion stylist Brana Wolf, Zimmermann co-founder and creative director Nicky Zimmermann, AUSFF alumni Georgia Lazzaro and AUSFF co-founder Julie Anne Quay and Malcolm Carfrae, the respective founders. VFiles and Carfrae Consulting.

Initiated by Quay and Carfrae in 2009, the AUSFF program has facilitated internships for Australian graduates at companies such as Calvin Klein, Proenza Schouler, Louis Vuitton, Thom Browne, Alexander McQueen, Narciso Rodriguez, Dion Lee and Wardrobe NYC.

According to Carfrae, the judges were particularly impressed with the tenacity and resourcefulness of the nine finalists in 2021 in the face of AustraliaCoronavirus lockdowns, lasting through most of the year.

“I think we all really fell in love with them because it’s not natural for young creators to be isolated in that way,” says Carfrae.

He added, “They worked with whatever resources they had. Like a girl who has been crocheted and modeled by her best friend in all her pictures. And you’re like ‘God, you’ve tried to create this beautiful creation but with the most incredible challenges being isolated’. Certainly in all years [of the awards], the biggest lesson for me was witnessing how they overcame that and turned it into their own good.”